Sir Patrick Stewart, Star Trek and X-Men Star, Dies at 86
The classically trained stage actor played Captain Jean-Luc Picard for more than three decades and Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films.
Sir Patrick Stewart has died at 86. His longtime spokesperson, Kelly Bush Novak, announced his death Thursday. He died Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles after what the announcement called “a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.”
“He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all,” the statement said. In lieu of flowers, it asked for donations to the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources.
Stewart was born in Mirfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966 and stayed for 16 years, building a stage career that ran alongside his screen work for the rest of his life. He won two Laurence Olivier Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for Golden Globes, Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Tony Award.
He became known around the world as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the commander of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. He played the role for seven seasons from 1987 to 1994, then in four feature films: Star Trek Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002). He returned to the character in Star Trek: Picard, which ran for three seasons from 2020 to 2023.
He first played Professor Charles Xavier in X-Men in 2000 and returned to the role across the series, including Logan (2017) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). He was also set to return as Xavier in Avengers: Doomsday, now a posthumous release.
His other work included Excalibur (1981) and Dune (1984), a one-man stage version of A Christmas Carol on Broadway, Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land opposite Ian McKellen, and the voice of Avery Bullock on American Dad!
Stewart was married to singer-songwriter Sunny Ozell since 2013. He leaves two children.
